Global Germany Circa 1800 asks two interrelated questions: How did Germans participate in the European conquest of the world, and how were they different from other imperial powers? In other words, what is the relation between the German form of empire, the old Reich, and the modern European empires that emerged in the global age?

In this book, Todd Kontje presents a revisionist literary and intellectual history, inviting readers to consider how we might understand “Germany” at the turn of the nineteenth century if we remove the nation-state as the inevitable goal of cultural and political development. Focusing on the pivotal years around 1800, when many of the concepts that define the modern era first came into being, Kontje investigates how thinkers in and around Weimar—from Goethe, Schiller, and Kant to Georg Forster, Heinrich von Kleist, and Alexander von Humboldt—worked within existing political structures to make sense of the region’s place in the world. Ultimately, he reveals how Weimar, a remote artist hub long thought to exemplify the insularity of a soon-to-be-unified nation, was in fact utterly worldly, and in a manner very different from the political capitals of imperial nation-states like London and Paris.

Accessible and entertaining, this literary history is essential reading for German studies students and scholars, and it will appeal to audiences in world history, empire studies, intellectual history, and comparative literature.

Explores how thinkers in and around Weimar—from Goethe, Schiller, and Kant to Georg Forster, Heinrich von Kleist, and Alexander von Humboldt—worked within existing political structures to try and make sense of the region’s place in the world during this pivotal time.

Reveals how Weimar, a remote artist hub long thought to exemplify the insularity of a soon-to-be-unified nation, was in fact utterly worldly, and in a very different way than the political capitals of imperial nation-states like London and Paris.

Kontje’s writing is famously accessible and entertaining, and will appeal to audiences in world history, empire studies, intellectual history, and comparative literature, in addition to German studies.

Todd Kontje is Distinguished Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego [emeritus effective July 1, 2024]. He is also the author of Georg Forster, which won the 2023 DAAD/GSA Prize for the Best Book in Literature and Cultural Studies.